Napa’s oldest wine society gets a makeover

Napa Valley’s oldest wine society, the St Helena appellation, has launched a new logo, which it hopes reflects the society’s history.

Lying north of Yountville and the Stags Leap District, north of Oakville and Rutherford, it was around the town of St. Helena that some of Napa Valley’s most legendary winemakers pioneered the region’s entry into the world of wine. Today St. Helena continues to be home to some of Napa Valley’s most famous wineries including Corison, Heitz, Raymond and Vineyard 29.

It was back in December of 1875, that a meeting between Charles Krug, Henry Pellet, and Seneca Ewer developed into the St. Helena Viticulture Club. The Club’s goals were lofty: its members would jointly find solutions to the biggest problems of the day: a negative impression of the region’s wine quality and the resulting (wretched) sales in the all-important east coast market.

Numerous image-changing decisions resulted from the Club’s inception, including the agreement to stop chaptalising wines, and a move away from the use of the Mission grape.

The new Ash logo

To commemorate this historic collaboration, the new logo for what is now called Appellation St. Helena, takes on a traditional look, using a classic burgundy color. The logo proudly includes the founding year of the society (1875) above the acronym of the organization: ASH.

In addition to highlighting the history of the appellation, Appellation St. Helena’s President, Dave Yewell, also noted a practical reason for the new design: its letters would be more recognizable from a distance. Grower members of Appellation St. Helena will be offered signage with the new logo to place at their vineyard sites. Yewell pointed out that there are currently over 170 separate vineyards in the appellation. The designer of the new logo is Tina Carpenter of Carpenter Creative in Napa, California.

With change in the air, the Appellation’s website has also been revamped. Bob Dye, a member of the Appellation St. Helena board and owner of Wine Country Web Design in St. Helena, has re-designed the site to be more user-friendly. The site includes an interactive map, making it easy for visitors to research the appellation’s wineries. This is a great new tool for discovering Appellation St. Helena. You can visit the site by going to: www.appellationsthelena.com